USD men's soccer bids for national ranking

You know things are going well for the USD men's soccer team when it can defeat Santa Clara. Yesterday's 3-2 win at Torero Stadium ended a nine-game unbeaten streak against the Broncos — eight of which were losses.

The win put the Toreros (9-3) firmly atop the West Coast Conference at 5-0 and almost certainly assured them of their first national ranking since 2006 when the new polls are announced this week.

After playing poorly for long stretches of Friday's 2-0 victory against St. Mary's, USD showed what happens when it plays well. It led 3-0 just 35 minutes into the match on goals by
Charles Blase,
Andrew Feld
and
Marcelo Carminatti.

Santa Clara (3-7-3, 1-3-1) made it interesting with goals in the 63rd and 67th minutes, but the Toreros settled down and salted away the game. They host Loyola Marymount on Thursday night before playing four of the final six on the road.

— MARK ZEIGLER

MORE COLLEGE SOCCER

•SDSU's men upset No. 6 Cal 2-1 on an overtime goal by freshman
Morgan Sacco
at the Sports Deck.
Raymundo Reza
had given the Aztecs (4-4-4) a 1-0 lead in the 78th minute, only for the Bears (8-5, 2-3) to tie it in the 89th. SDSU is 2-0-1 against top-10 teams this season and 6-1-4 since 2005.

MOTOR SPORTS

Jenson Button
clinched his first Formula One title with a fifth-place finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paolo yesterday and his Brawn GP team made history by becoming the first to take the constructors' crown in its debut season.

“This race was the best race I've driven in my life,” Button said. “I knew I had to make it happen.”